A Short Guide to Writing Technical Papers: A Company Perspective
Kim S Siow
Package Innovation Development Centre
ON Semiconductor, SCG Industries Malaysia Sdn Bhd
Lot 122 Senawang Industrial Estate 70450 Seremban
Negeri Sembilan Malaysia.
Email: [email protected]; [email protected]
Writing a book or a paper is often associated with scholars’ activities. After all, scholars leave a
legacy of literature to be read by later generations. This exchange of ideas is best served by the work
being made available in the public domain. This mindset rules in academic circles, where a culture of
“publish or perish” has taken hold. On the other hand, engineers working in profit-oriented companies
often view publishing in journals as a free-time “nice-to-have”. Such engineers pride themselves on
solving problems to save or earn money for their companies. Writing papers is “for academicians”. This
mindset presents unique challenges to aspiring writers working in companies. This paper looks at five
questions related to the activity of writing and publishing amongst engineers: “Why, Where, When, What
and Who”. Answering these five questions will go a long way towards providing a framework for
engineers to write in a company environment. The paper also cites an established protocol – the
Vancouver Protocol - used to determine authorship for any publication.
“Why should I write the paper?” This is the first question engineers will
ask themselves, often feeling that they should have left the writing of
papers (or ‘term papers’) after graduating from university. Engineers are
supposed to get their hands dirty solving “real” problems. That is the
mantra drilled into engineers’ heads all over the world. At least, that is
what a career mentor will advise an engineer working in a company. But
writing and publishing papers gives visibility to the author, and may get
him noticed by company management.
In many cases, the manager approving an engineer’s promotion is not located in the same
building as the engineer. The manager may be located in another country or know of the engineer solely
through the paperwork landing on his desk. A published paper in a reputable conference or journal gives
instant credibility to the engineer’s work. A published paper would normally have gone through a
rigorous review process, which functions as an endorsement of the quality of work.
What better way to tell your peers what you are working or doing research on than by sending
them a published paper? After all, such a paper is the only legitimate way to tell anyone outside your
company what you are working on without breaking the strictures of confidentiality. Your paper will
also put you in touch with researchers everywhere who are interested in your field.
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Writing a paper also helps to clarify missing links or thoughts in the research or development
process. As you can write up your work, you are more likely to spot mistakes and correct them on your
own. If the resultant paper is sent for review by a journal, no fewer than two experts in your area will go
through your work to assess its merit.
Companies are also motivated to ask their employees to publish papers because such published
materials can be used as marketing materials. Imagine the difference in perception when you read a paper
published in a reputable journal versus a glossy advertisement in a magazine extolling the same product.
While the audiences accessing these two publications may be different, a published paper instantly brings
credibility to the content. An advertisement is a paid service, versus the objective assessment required for
acceptance in a reputable journal.
Regular publication in conferences or journals helps a company shape the direction of
development so as to benefit from it. For example, the company can pioneer a proposed common
standard or qualification test for a particular technology. As the pioneer, the company will naturally have
a first-mover advantage in setting a high barrier to prevent newcomers entering the game.
“Where to publish?” is another natural question. There are
two main avenues to publishing one’s work: conferences and
scientific journals. Major conferences are held throughout the
year in different parts of the world.
The Electronics
Packaging Technology Conference in Singapore and
Electronic Components and Technology Conference in the
USA are two well known examples for those working in the
microelectronics field.
Travelling to exotic places is one of the perks of publishing papers in research conferences. More
important is the opportunity to meet like-minded individuals from the same field, to exchange ideas, share
new findings and perhaps set new directions for the industry. Authors must look at the editorial policies
of the conference organizers and submit the papers accordingly. Format, paper length and conference
focus differ substantially from one conference to another. Conforming to these rules and regulations are
prerequisites for acceptance and publication.
Writing for a scientific journal is another avenue for sharing one’s findings. This approach can
be more cumbersome due to its stricter reviewing process, but journals normally reach a larger audience.
Not all journals are created equal: They differ in scope, target audience, impact factor etc. ‘Impact factor’
aims to quantify the influence or impact of the journal by dividing the number of citations in previous two
years by the number of papers published within that period. An insightful paper in an emerging area of a
widely-read journal is likely to attract numerous citations. Naturally, a “high impact’ journal should be
the publication medium of choice for any researchers worth their salt. An equally important criterion is
the target readership of a journal. A company-based engineer should consider this factor carefully
because he would want his readers to care about his findings and their significance. Unlike academic
researchers who need to publish in high impact journals to continue receiving research funding, a
company-based researcher can afford to be more selective and instead look at the readership more
carefully. The right audience will attract the right stakeholders to advance this area of research and
development quickly for commercialization and mass adoption.
Besides original research papers, a company–based researcher can also write a review paper
which generally comments on developments in his field, summarizing key breakthroughs and speculating
on its future directions. In the past, such review papers were often invited papers written by established
scientists. However, the current proliferation of journals seeking contributions from authors has resulted
in plentiful opportunities for aspiring authors to publish in this genre.
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Another type of journal paper is the short letter responding to earlier papers published in the same
journal. Again, this “letter”-style paper calls for certain skills and in-depth knowledge because the letter
must point out a critical flaw in an earlier published paper; a critical flaw that changes the conclusion of
the paper. Unless the letter’s authors know the topic very well, they are unlikely to point out such farreaching errors.
When
do
I
publish
the
paper?
Another part of the puzzle for company-based writers is
determining the timing for publishing their papers.
Companies spend millions every year to develop new
products and competencies. Naturally, they would want a
return on their investment, and not give any hard-won
advantages away.
Hence, it is natural that many publications in the literature that originate in company research
contain coded numbers instead of actual process parameters. Any published paper must contain useful
information which justifies its publication in a conference or journal. So, engineers have to thread a fine
line between publishing work which is of interest to the scientific community and divulging company
secrets. Fortunately, most companies have established protocols to handle such dilemmas. If these
strategies are applied judiciously, publication can be a powerful weapon to protect the company
intellectual property. Publication of work deemed too difficult to be successfully prosecuted in the
patenting process can prevent others from doing likewise; it is a case of “if I can’t own it fully, nobody
can have it either”.
Under normal circumstances, a company will initially file a patent for an invention and then allow
publication after the patent information become public domain following the expiry of the mandatory
blackout period of 18 months under US patent laws. Publication and dissemination of inventive steps
before the patent application is fully prosecuted can be used by the patent office to invalidate the patent
application even if the authors and the inventors are the same person. The only exception is for
inventions filed in US Patent and Trademark Office, which allows filing up to 12 months since public
disclosure.
This conundrum naturally leads to the next question: “What can be
published in the open literature? We often feel that we need to have
achieved a research breakthrough before we can publish. But there is no
such requirement. In general, editors and reviewers are looking for how a
submitted paper can contribute to the existing pool of knowledge in a
timely manner. As mentioned earlier, this contribution must be balanced
against a company’s desire to not accidentally disclose know-how or
confidential information that compromises its competitive edge. Materials
compositions, design architecture and processing conditions are typically
kept confidential; this approach may not rest well with reviewers who is
looking for enough information for the experiments to be repeated
elsewhere, thereby validating the proposed hypothesis.
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Another pressing issue during publication is who owns the copyright on figures, diagrams or
charts created during the collaboration between company and supplier. The same issue applies when
engaging third party service providers to perform certain tasks or analysis. In most circumstances, service
providers do not own the copyright to the work unless this is indicated otherwise in the contract. Hence,
sufficient time must be allocated to obtaining the necessary permissions from all stakeholders before the
paper is submitted for review.
A company-based engineer must also pay attention to the reference section of his published
paper. While patents and patent applications are rich sources of information, citation of such documents
in open publications is typically discouraged by company patent attorneys. Such citations can be used as
evidence in court to show that said company is willfully infringing on other patents if its technologies are
later found not to be substantially different from the cited patents. Instead, company-based engineers tend
to cite previous publications from their own companies; the citations would show developments in the
same field and the writers whose work is cited would be proud of their work.
Who
should
considered
the
author
of
a
paper?
If publication is so important to engineers’ careers, all engineers
would want to append their names to a published paper. However,
credible researchers do not want their names to be associated with
every piece of work churned out by their company. Credible
researchers only want to be associated with work in which they are
directly involved, so that they would be willing to take the attendant
public responsibilities. The history of scientific fraud is replete with
ambitious researchers who are not willing to put in the hard work
needed to produce results, but resort instead to cheating. In the past 10
years, Schon’s organic semiconductor and Hwang’s stem cell
scandals come to mind. Almost all journal publishers adopt the Vancouver Protocol, which stipulates the
following conditions for authorship of publication: “1) substantial contributions to conception and
design, acquisition of data, or analysis of and interpretation of data; (2) drafting the article or revising it
critically for important intellectual content; (3) final approval of the version to be published”. With these
clear guidelines, researchers can recruit the right members for their teams: Researchers willing to put in
their fair share of sweat to be part of the action, and to take public responsibility for it.
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Conclusions
In this paper, the author attempts to address the five
main questions related to writing and publishing a
paper for an engineer based in a company: The
‘why’, ‘where’, ‘what’, ‘when’ and ‘who’. Unlike a
university which is likely to be funded by public
money for the benefit of society or humanity, a
profit-oriented company may not promote publishing
activities as enthusiastically as the former.
The
author examines these five issues in depth and
remains convinced that company-based engineers
have an equally important role in contributing papers
for publication. Both
company and authors stand to gain from publication of their work through furthering career progress and
customers’ mindshare. There are avenues aplenty to publish one’s work. However, company- based
engineers need to exercise some care in selecting what and when to publish their work, and must not
divulge company secrets or jeopardize any patent applications by their company. Having argued that the
company environment is suitable for publishing, the author cites the Vancouver Protocol as the criterion
for authorship in any published paper. Clear guidelines will maintain the cordial working environment
amongst engineers in a company.
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